Work Overview

I started Heaven is Closed in Sydney on the New Year's
Eve (2000), according to my superstition or ritual, if that is a
better word to always start a new piece on that night, even if it
is only a couple of bars. I like the idea that everyone goes
crazy partying while I do my own thing, so to speak. This is a
left-over peculiarity from my days in Moscow when I lived in a
student hostel, with other students from Gnesin College-I was 14
years old. I remember how the sounds were coming out of all the
rooms (each had a piano in it) different instruments' sounds or
singing, and I had to get on with my home work for Harmony or
Aural or Musicology, so I learned to disregard the noise around
me. And with time I cultivated this into the ritual of working on
the New Year's Eve.

It was started in Sydney and finished in Hanover while I was
there rehearsing and witnessing the premiere of "Sarglos" a
chamber work of mine. I like working on pieces while "on the
road", especially parallel to some other activity, like working
on a theatre play while revising another piece, etc. It seems to
free the mind for very different kinds of ideas and this piece
ended up soaking up some of the whirlwind energy of that
time.